Bottle of Water Sound Bites Lecture. Dr. Georgios Patsiaouras Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption, School of Management

Transcription

1 Bottle of Water Sound Bites Lecture Dr. Georgios Patsiaouras Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption, School of Management

2 Water: product/service

3 The paradox of water consumption Diamond-Water paradox: Value in use is priceless but value in exchange is low (Smith, 1776) Marginal utility theory: as supply of water increases any particular unit of water becomes less valuable for individuals. Malthus (1798/1976) prognosis

4 Water shortage and lack of supply Each person needs about 25 liters of water each day for the basics - to drink, cook and wash sufficiently to avoid disease transmission. (World Health Organization) In 1999 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported that 200 scientists in 50 countries had identified water shortage as the second most worrying problem for the new millennium (below global warming). 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation (2002, UNICEF/WHO JMP 2004)

5 Water Stress

6 The economic dimension of water: transfer 2005, Israel and Turkey: import of 50 million cubic feet of water - annually and for 20 years: expensive process used in Middle East. In 2008 and during severe drought the city of Barcelona imported freshwater from France and cross-national transfers of water occur in the Caribbean, Canary Islands and the Philippines. Ecologically harmful mega-engineering plans are being considered to allow the transfer of water from Siberia to Central Asia (Hoekstra 2010). Southern water is plentiful, northern water scarce. If at all possible, borrowing some water would be good (Mao ZeDong)

7 Reference Number County/ State Water Actual/Prese Banks nt Potential Water Source Ratepayers Rate Type Asking Price Posting Date WUMN100 Michigan Wells 150/1000 Flat Fee $1,100, VA100 Virginia Reservoir 750/1300 Flat Fee $3,000, WUNV201 Nevada, rapidly developing area, access to interstates 2 Electric Wells, Pump rate= gpm, potential to put larger pumps on wells <100/500+ Owner would like to sell or partner w/ person with capital to invest in further expanding utility 0.19/per first 1,000 gallons 0.10/per every gallon after initial 1,000 gallons =.0105 cents per gallon CALL 4/4/02 AZ10 Arizona Wells 249 Flat Fee $410,

8 The technological dimension of water: Desalination Australia, China, Israel, India, Brazil Abu Dhabi and the USA amongst several other water-stressed countries and areas, 50% in Middle East desalination plants worldwide. Considerable negative knock on effects to marine life, generates gas emission and pollutes the nearest residential environment (Younos 2005). China s prepares the development of an already superambitious and growing desalination market, which is expected to cost almost 95 billion dollars by 2015.

9 Water Footprint Ecological footprint method (Ewing et. al 2010) of measuring and visualizing human demand for natural capital against planet s capacity The Water Footprint Network: ecological impact from both the direct and indirect use of water by consumers, producers, communities, businesses or even nations; which is known as water footprint. United States of America with 2480m 3 /yr, China average of 700m 3 /yr World s average is /yr (Hoekstra and Hung 2005; Hoekstra and Chapagain 2008). Quantity of water needed to produce 1 kg of: - wheat: 1, 000 L, - rice: 1, 400 L, - beef: 13, 000 L. (Zimmer and Renault, 2003)

10 Virtual water foot-print

11 Political dimension of water markets The next war in the Middle East will be over water not politics (Boutros Ghali, 1988) Transboundary, national or regional angle water wars - Portugal and Spain, - Controversy for the La Plata Basin between Brazil and Paraguay - China s tensions with downstream users of Mekong River such as Laos and Vietnam - More than 260 river basins are shared by two or more nations a) local communities, the state and private companies, such as the Cochabamba Water War in Bolivia b) farmers against industrial companies over access to water resources in Mexico c) between farmers and city consumers in India (Briscoe and Malik 2006).

12 Water-Use it Wisely Guarantee the right to water via legislation. thinking globally acting locally for active government and community intervention Coordinated and transnational efforts amongst regulators, consumers, companies and researchers for more democratic and fair distribution of shared resources. Proactive marketing campaigns for responsible water consumption, distributive justice, equality in resource allocation and protection of our ecosystem.